Columns

Looking back on 2020: Covid-19 and the changing nature of our faces, hands and breath   Michelangelo – The Creation of Adam (detail) (c. 1511).   What exactly has changed about the way we go about our daily lives asView More >

“Rei Naito: Mirror Creation” – on a sunny day, on a rainy day   Rei Naito – The spirit (2020). Installation view at “Rei Naito: Mirror Creation,” at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. All images (except where otherwiseView More >

The COVID-19 pandemic and “Don’t Follow the Wind” – and then there were only “exhibitions that no-one can see”   Current state of the Designated Waste Landfill Disposal Center (former Fukushima Eco-tech Clean Center), Tomioka, Fukushima. All photos: The writer.View More >

Katsumi Sunamori – Implications of the Scenery (2)   From Katsumi Sunamori Kama Tida: Osaka Nishinari (1989). All images: © Katsumi Sunamori Photography Office   In my last column, I delved into the question, Who is Katsumi Sunamori? and discoveredView More >

Katsumi Sunamori – Implications of the Scenery (1)   Katsumi Sunamori – From the series “Unzen, Nagasaki” (1993-95). © Katsumi Sunamori Photography Office.   On the morning of June 2, 2019, I arrived at Nagasaki Airport and headed south byView More >

Imagination for recovery – Disaster and restoration   Kenichi Tanaka – (left to right)>: Haisen C (1964), oil on canvas; Still life 1 (1975), oil on canvas; Umibe no bochi A (1978), oil on canvas. Installation view at “Art DoctorView More >

Before “Freedom of Expression?”: 2019 for Shusei Kobayakawa, Kikuji Yamashita, and Nobuyuki Oura   Shusei Kobayakawa – Kuni no tate (Shield of the Nation) (1944), color on paper, collection Kyoto Ryozen Gokoku Shrine (entrusted to the Nichinancho Art Museum).  View More >

Evading Perspective – Thoughts inspired by “What If AI Composed for Mr. S?”   Reference material: Copy of an instruction sheet given to Mr. N by Mr. S (2014), photocopy on paper, 21 x 29.7 cm. From the Artificial IntelligenceView More >

Inosuke Hazama traveled to Europe four times and studied under Matisse, was an assistant professor at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, and served as president of the Japan Art Association. However, in the later half of his life he devoted himself to making Ko-Kutani ware in Ishikawa Prefecture. Sawaragi visited the Inosuke Hazama Art Museum to look into this change and Inosuke’s enduring pursuit of modern painting.